Harsh Winters
by emrys-knight
Summary: It's one of the coldest winters NYC has ever had and it's taking a toll on Peter. They're not sure if Peter is gonna survive this one.


"Do we really have to do this?" Peter sat, legs crossed, while Bruce numbed the area. Tony stood at the end of Peter's bed, while Bucky leaned against the wall in the corner, waiting for Peter to be done so they could spar with Bucky's newest weapons Tony had made him.

"If you didn't get yourself into so much trouble, the answer would be no, but here we are." Tony teased.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark." Peter looked down at the sheets on his bed, sheepishly, while fidgeting with his hands.

"Look, Pete; we get that you want to keep being Spider-Man, and we want you to, but this helps us find you if things go wrong again. It's not gonna hurt. I'm just gonna numb this area, put in the PTVS and then disinfect it. After that, it'll take about five to ten minutes for it to heal." Bruce calmly tried to help Peter understand his minor procedure, actually helping him feel better.

"PTVS?" Peter slightly tilted his head.

"Peter's Tracking Vitals System." Tony flipped through his blueprints on his phone.

"See?" Bucky piped up.

"Yup." Peter giggled. His movements frustrated Bruce, who was trying to finish numbing Peter's wrist.

"See what?" Tony turned to the silver-armed soldier.

"Everything is an acronym." Bucky looked up from his iPhone. He'd been trying to learn how to use it.

"Hmm." Tony turned back to look at Peter, noticing he was a little nervous. "Hey, Underoos. It's fine. It's only gonna take a second."

"Okay, ready?" Bruce brought the PTVS over to Peter, showing him how small it was. It was smooth, circular and white, with blue and red spots on it.

"I guess." Peter watched closely while Bruce cut Peter's wrist, to the side of his veins. He slowly started to insert the PTVS before Peter cried out in pain.

Bruce quickly stopped, bringing his arm back, the tracker in hand. "What? I numbed it."

"It hurts." Peter whimpered.

"Dammit. It could be because of your heightened senses. I can't give you anything else. It'll damage your wrist." Bruce sighed. "I'll do it as quick as I can. Bucky?"

It was if Bruce had verbally told Bucky what to do, because the blue-eyed soldier instantly walked over to the side of Peter's bed and held his arm out, sitting in the chair next to him. He set his phone in his sweatshirt pocket, then looked at Peter. "Remember, it's vibranium. Squeeze as hard as you need to, okay?" Peter nodded and grabbed onto Bucky's metal forearm.

"Okay. Take two." Tony grabbed onto Peter's ankle, rubbing his thumb over the curve where his bone was.

"I'll countdown." Bruce readied the PTVS and started the countdown. "Three. Two. One." He quickly but gently put the tracker into place. Peter whimpered and squeezed Bucky's arm as hard as he could.

He started to calm when the tracker gently conformed to the shape of his veins. "It doesn't hurt anymore." He smiled when Bruce put a Spider-Man band-aid on his small cut. They had kept them on hand in case of situations like these.

"See?" Bruce looked Peter in the eyes. "Not a problem."

"Definitely a problem." Bucky looked up, as he was half pulled across Peter's bed, almost falling out of his chair.

"Oh. Sorry." Peter let go of Bucky's arm, letting him sit back upright.

"It's okay. I'm just screwing with you." Bucky laughed.

It's one of the coldest winters New York had ever had. Peter bundled up in as many layers of clothes as he could, attempting to keep it as low key as he could, hoping May wouldn't notice. He put on a hat and some gloves and began walking out of the door, leaving for the Avengers compound when May piped up from her seat behind him.

'Why are you wearing so many layers?" She stood, walking towards him. "Here, take one or two off. Jeez."

"But I really need them." He hugged himself before she could take them off.

"You're being dramatic, Peter." May laughed. She grabbed the bottom of his outermost layer, pulling it over his head and throwing it on the couch behind her. She then took another two layers off, leaving a t-shirt, jacket and outer coat. "Keep the hat and gloves for good measure, but just be safe. Tell Tony I want you back here at eight o'clock. No later!"

"Promise." Peter reluctantly left the apartment, knowing he'd have to get to the compound quickly. He grabbed his web slingers out of his pocket and started to swing through the tall, vast buildings, as quickly as he could.

He started to shiver, in the air. Every swing became more and more difficult. He almost fell, at one point, when his arm started to feel like a heavy weight.

He stopped, on the ground, trying not to step in the light snow on the sidewalk. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, dialing up Happy. When he answered, Peter kept shivering. "H-H-Happy. I-i-it's r-really c-cold."

"Then get inside." Happy groaned.

"I c-can't. I g-got out of th-the c-city." It was becoming hard for Peter to walk. "N-no bui-buildings."

"Put in your earpiece." Happy set his phone in the car, letting the Bluetooth take over. Peter did as he was told, connecting his phone to an earpiece Shuri had given him. "You have it in?"

"I sure do!" Peter's voice was a little too loud for Happy's liking.

"I'm headed to your location. Just keep going. You shouldn't be too far off." Happy sped towards Peter's tracker dot on his GPS.

"Where… 'm I goin-?" Peter's words slurred. He was aggressively shaking. He stopped walking and Happy could see it. "I-need... I needa take my j-jacket off."

"No, Peter. Don't do that. Don't take your clothes off." Happy pressed on the gas a little further.

"I need… I… it hurts, Happy." He whimpered while he took his last few remaining layers. "I think… I think I wanna. I'm. Imma take it off."

"No, Peter!"

The alarms sounded throughout the compound, red lights flashing.

"Peter!" Bruce ran after Tony, iPad in hand. "He's severely hypothermic! Happy's en route to him, right now, but we need to get a med unit out there, ASAP."

"As requested, Dr. Banner," Friday spoke up. As she did, almost as if on cue, a med team rushed by and out of the doors. Tony and Bruce followed closely behind.

"His skin is really light. His pupils are dilated." Happy was on the phone with Bruce and Tony.

"What's his shivering like?" Bruce looked through Peter's vitals on his tablet.

"He's shaking really bad then he won't for a minute then he shakes then nothing." Happy pulled Peter's jacket back over him, tucking it under his back.

"Okay he's-" Bruce was interrupted by a frantic Happy.

"He stopped shivering! He's in the fetal position, now." Happy held his hand over the little Avenger's arm.

"We're almost there." Bruce started to look through Peter's vitals. "His pulse is too weak!"

"H-he's not moving. He's a little conscious but not by much." Happy stared at the spider in shock.

"His body is going into hibernation. He's nearing fatal hypothermia." Bruce spoke to no-one in particular.

"No, no, no," Tony repeated.

"Luckily, his body can withstand much more than a normal human so it's not going to kill him as fast but the problem is, his spider DNA is weakened by the cold, which is what's ironically saving him from the hypothermia caused by the cold." Bruce went on as they pulled up to Happy and Peter's location.

"Oh my-" Tony stepped out of the vehicle, looking at Peter, who was curled up and unconscious. The medics assessed his physical status.

"Erratic and shallow breathing, Dr. Banner." A medic looked at Bruce, eyes wide.

Bruce grabbed his kit from a junior medic. He set it on the ground, looking over Peter. "Sedation shot. We're intubating." The senior medic started to hand him the shot before noticing it wasn't the right color. "This isn't a sedative. This is a paralytic. Who packed this med bag?"

"I-I did…" The junior medic spoke up.

"Do you realize what you've done? We have to intubate, now, without a sedative. At least you didn't pack an anticonvulsant. That would have been completely useless. We can still do something with the paralytic." The senior medic scolded the junior medic mercilessly.

"You're fired." Tony's stern voice was ignored by the medical personnel. Bruce would have said something, but he was focused on getting the tube fixed so he could intubate.

Voices and sounds were distant. He recognized them. He'd come to be familiar with the med team, given how many times they'd gotten him after a sticky situation. He heard something… Something he hadn't heard in a long time and had hoped he'd never hear again. But there he was.

"Peter, we're about to intubate you. We can't sedate you. I'm so sorry." Bruce started pushing the tube into Peter's throat, and he struggled. He couldn't whimper because of the obstructing tube, but he still tried, and he felt a shock of pain. He arched his back, making the medics nervous. They all, together, held him down while Bruce finished up. They then lifted the spider onto the gurney and took him over to the medical vehicle, and sped off towards the compound.

They managed to get him warm, but they had had to medically induce a coma, making Tony nervous. A week had passed and there were no improvements.

"I-I think it's time." Bruce sat Tony down.

"It's that bad?" Tony rubbed a hand over his face.

"Yeah. It really is."

May's screams were audible throughout the entire compound. The other Avengers brought their shoulders to their ears at the heart-wrenching sound. She ran over to Peter, who laid on the bed with an oxygen mask on and special heating blankets.

"What happened? What happened to my baby?!" She held his hand, moving his curls back.

"He wanted to come to the compound on his own, but we sent someone out, anyway, and he found him fatally hypothermic." Bruce checked Peter's vitals and medical settings, trying to keep his eyes off of the small family.

"My baby." She gently laid her hand on his cheek, stroking her thumb against his cheekbone.

"Dammit." Tony sat on the other side of the bed, in a chair, and held onto Peter's other hand. "I told him to wear a bunch of layers. I told him the cold would hurt him."

"Those… he really did need them." May's sobs grew even louder with the new information. "He had a bunch on but I took a few off because I thought he was being overdramatic."

"Not at all. With his DNA, we need to be very careful of-" Bruce stopped when he'd realized what he said. He turned to Tony, eyes wide.

"It's fine, Bruce. It's time she knew." Tony stood from his seat, leaving with Bruce. They stop at the door and turn. "Friday, play the video."

"Right away, sir." Peter's television turned on, and there he sat in his bed, eyes glassy. Tony and Bruce left the room, closing the door to give May some private time.

"Aunt May. If you're watching this… I'm either dead, or I've got a foot in the grave. May, you took me in after my parents died. After I thought everything I had was taken from me. But because of you, I went to a great school. At that school, I went on a field trip that ultimately ended up with me getting bit by a spider who's DNA was molecularly manipulated, giving me powers. So I guess… I guess I'm Spider-Man because of you, May. I'm an Avenger because of you. I've met my newest additions to the family because of you. I've lived a good life because of you. You're probably wondering why I kept being Spider-Man even after every bad thing that had happened, but I'll tell you, basically, what I told Tony. When you can do what I can, when you can stop the bad things from happening, and you don't; they happen because of you." Tears fell down Peter's cheeks. "I'm so sorry, May. I didn't mean for this to happen. I promise I didn't. I tried to stop, at first, but it would keep me up at night. I would sit up and hear those screams and I couldn't just sit and let it happen knowing I could stop it. After Uncle Ben… I had to protect you. I had to protect the city, May, and I'm so sorry. Please don't stop living because of me. Tony and T'Challa promised they'd take care of the money. Steve said he'd he'd help you with other stuff. Natasha and Clint said they'd make sure you're always safe. Shuri made you some stuff for when I'm gone. I love you, May. So much. Thank you for everything. I really need to say it again, so… I love you."

The screen paused on Peter's face, tears streaming, while he reaches up to turn off the camera. May howls and it breaks the Avengers who are able to hear the gut-wrenching sound.

Peter's eyebrows furrowed as he slowly began to crawl back to consciousness. May stood, looking at his eyes.

"Peter?" She wiped an oncoming tear from her eye. "Peter!" Her sudden loud town woke the rest of the Avengers who had taken up sleep in his room.

"May?" He opened his eyes, fully, taking in the sight of his room. He slowly sat up, looking around at everyone. "What's going on?"

"She knows, kid." Tony decided it would be best to break the news quick.

"She-oh. I'm sorry, May." He looked down at his sheets, fearful of what she'd have to say.

"I'm so proud of you." She gave him a tight hug. The warmth of her body was welcome. "I'm still gonna be worried, but I trust you. I trust your team." He was surprised at her acceptance but definitely happy with it.

He had the best family ever. And he knew it


End file.
